TRON: Legacy…

I went to see the first TRON film when it came out. I loved it. I was blown away. I wanted it all to be real. Remember this was 1982. The year after the ZX81 was released. I had a ZX81 and I was totally amazed by computers. It didn’t seem like a massive leap to think of programs as little people running around inside the box doing amazing things. It was a brave new world.

So 28 years later we have the sequel. It looks amazing and has a brilliant sound track but the fatal flaw is the concept of programs running round like people. They keep mentioning the “grid” as if that brings the concept up to date. It’s not little people running round in the box. It’s little people running round in “the grid”. Oh please. Give me a break. If that were the case there would be two giant fat people called Facebook and Google and a bunch of ants.

If I were them I would have re-imagined it entirely and replaced the original concept with a submersive virtual reality program. Doh! Already been done by eXistenZ and The Matrix…

TRON was amazing in its time. TRON: Legacy isn’t. The best thing that could happen to this craptacular film is they chop it up and turn it into a visually spectacular extended video for the Daft Punk soundtrack. I would probably buy that DVD.

Had exactly the same reaction.
Maybe got a bit jaded with the original and expected something totally different this time around?
It all felt a bit like MOTS…
My son watched it with me and he’s never seen the original but he *knows* Daft Punk inside out, so for him it was much more interesting.
Weird.

Completely agree! I was eager to see the film, but ultimately it fell short. I like stunning SFX and strong visual elements as much as any SciFi movie fan, but Tron Legacy just didn’t hold together. It’s not awful, but it’s not great. For my money, it’s a matter of pacing. 3D and spectacular visuals can’t save a boring scene – and there are plenty of those.